Shiro sighed. Things were going wrong. People were listening to him less and less.

He wondered what he would have to do to win back respect. He guessed that he had been acting quite... stand-offish.

Unkind, a bad friend, a bad leader, but at the times, it had seemed the right thing to do.

If only he had-

There was a click, and a strange fuzzing sensation, before Shiro's consciousness - in this body at least - ceased to exist.

---

Pidge was the first to notice Shiro acting strangely.

He was moving more robotically, and there was a strange look in his eyes as he walked over to the control hub.

She wouldn't have sad anything about it, if he hadn't opened a panel, grabbed a punch of wires and ripped them out.

"Shiro! What the heck are you doing?!"

Lights started flickering. All the Paladins were alert now.

He reached in again, pulling out more, with his other hand smashing the controls. Inhumane strength of which none of them had seen before.

"Stop it! You're going to break the castle!"

But it was already breaking. With each clump of wires pulled out, something else went wrong.

Lights turned out, system functions went haywire, the ventilation system failed.

Allura ran forward and tried to pull him away from the vital wiring of the castle but he simply grabbed her leg and threw her three metres away.

She landed painfully, her shoulder dislocating on impact.

Hunk ran to her aid as Pidge brought out her bayard.

"Shiro, move away from the controls!"

He didn't show any signs of hearing what she said, instead ripping out another handful of wires.

Pidge didn't know what to do, she hadn't planned to actually attack him.

Keith was even more at loss, just staring, confused beyond belief. Why was he doing this? What was wrong with him?

More wires, more controls, smashed up and broken.

Coran attempted what Allura did, gabbing hold of Shiro's arm but this time being thrown into another set of controls, head making contact with the metal, and put out of action for a while.

Pidge's instincts kicked in, hitting him between the shoulder blades with her bayard, meaning to electrocute him and stun him, considering the amount of nerves concentrated around the shoulders, but he was unharmed. All she had done was gained his attention.

He grabbed her bayard, ripped it out of her hands and struck her in the chest with it, winding her and sending her flying.

With a blade, the breaking of wires was much faster, and soon enough, every function in the castle was offline, damaged, or destroyed.

The castle was little more than a wreck floating in space.

---

Lance awoke when he hit the floor of the healing pods room, rubbing his cheek painfully.

How... strange.

He could have sworn that he was stumbling down the castle's halls just now...

He looked down, and the wounds on his arms were little more than scabs, closed up and no longer bleeding.

Somebody had taken him to a healing pod.

Keith, had taken him to a healing pod.

But, why did he fall out?

And, noticing that the room was almost pitch black, he wondered about that too.

What was happening?

He got to his feet, throat tightening as he realised the air was thin.

There was something deeply wrong.

He crept out of the room, following his nose to the bridge, where he hoped the others were, so they could explain what madness was going on.

---

Once all the wires and controls were beyond repair, Shiro turned on the rest of the group, eyes first setting sight on Keith, who was quite plainly terrified.

He turned his bayard into a sword, trying to prepare himself to attack him... to defend himself...

But he couldn't.

No way could he ever hurt Shiro, even though he was doing this.

He froze up in fear, watching Shiro come closer and closer, fast, Pidge's bayard ready to swing, bracing himself for the impact, and being knocked to the ground.

His head rang like a bell, a throbbing pain appearing in his left temple, but he still couldn't move.

His vision was watery. Was he crying?

"GET AWAY FROM KEITH!" Hunk yelled, aiming his heavy gun at the black paladin's head, biting his lip.

Shiro stood up, turning to his new obstacle, swapping which hand held the bayard so that he could activate his prosthetic, hand glowing purple.

"I... I don't want to have to do this!"

He started advancing, sending Hunk's heartbeat skyrocketing.

He fired, his target rolling easily out of the way, dodging this way and that.

Pidge had managed to get back up, and as he got closer to Hunk, she lunged for her bayard, getting a hold of it but letting go as Shiro swung his bionic arm at her.

She lunged again but didn't manage the first achievement.

Hunk's weapon lost effectiveness as Shiro came into close range, so he simply swung the weapon at him, but achieved as much as Pidge did.

He shoved his hand into Hunk's side, rewarded with a scream of pain and another defeated foe.

Keith stared at the scene. He needed to help... but, he couldn't. Shiro was his brother. Shiro was his only family, he couldn't hurt him.

Even if he hurt and killed everyone else.

---

As Lance got closer to the bridge, he heard yelling and crashing.

He sped up, peering into the room, shocked to see half the inhabitants on the floor and the other half fighting.

Shiro had Pidge's bayard in one hand and the other hand activated. Pidge was dodging attacks, tiring quickly, and Coran sneaked up behind with a metal pipe.

What was happening? Why was Shiro attacking people? Why were people attacking Shiro?

What was this?

Shiro caught her with a wide arc of the bayard, smashing it into her head and watching her crumple.

All the Paladins had their helmets on, Coran had his portable breathing mask that he always carried with him.

The air was getting thinner. Each breath got harder to take. It was scary.

He didn't have a mask. His old paladin armour had been put somewhere but he didn't know where.

Shiro had noticed Coran sneaking up on him and he took him down easily.

Lance had to do something. Shiro was walking towards Keith, looking ready to kill.

He was going to kill.

He had to stop him.

Heart racing, lungs screaming, he sneaked out from his hiding spot, keeping his footfalls silent. He picked up the pipe that Coran was using, and tiptoed over to Shiro, sneaking up behind him.

Keith was staring, petrified, and his eyes widened as he noticed Lance.

Lance pressed a finger to his lips, holding the pipe as you would a baseball bat.

He aimed, took a second to think it through, before bringing it down as hard as he could on the former leader's head.

It seemed to phase him slightly, dropping Pidge's bayard and swaying to the side. Lance quickly picked it up and slid it in Pidge's general direction.

"Keith we need to work together! C'mon!"

He shook his head.

"... I-I can't... I..." he looked at Lance, ashamed, "... I'm sorry..."

Shiro was getting back up, glaring at Lance with utmost fury.

"... Shiro... please... calm down..."

He didn't recognise words. He seemed to only have the single intent of murder.

His hand glowed brighter, threatening Lance with its purple light.

It would cut the pipe right in half. His weapon was now useless.

His adrenaline was failing as his lungs were starved, and his body has still lost a lot of blood.

Considering the situation and the possible outcomes, he took a couple of steps backwards, and ran.

He heard the footsteps behind him and his fear jumped right up.

He didn't know what he was doing. This wouldn't get him anywhere.

He was just tiring himself out. Shiro would catch up eventually, and he'd be cut down.

He had to think of what to do. Why was Shiro acting like this? It was completely unlike him, and he wasn't even acting like a human anymore.

As he was sneaking up behind him, he couldn't remember seeing him breathe.

Everybody else was out of action. He was the only one.

Looking behind him, Shiro was as close as ever, and he felt his legs burning.

He couldn't work out what was happening. He couldn't understand why Shiro was doing this.

He didn't know what to do.

He was going to die today.